Indian PM Modi’s Twitter Account Hacked – Again

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Twitter account has been hacked, falsely announcing the country will adopt the Bitcoin digital currency.

The Indian Prime Minister’s personal Twitter account (@narendramodi) was “very briefly compromised,” his office was quoted as saying by CNN.

The account tweeted a bitcoin scam, and several screenshots of the offending tweet was captured by social media users, according to CNN’s affiliate News-18.

Bitcoin scam

“India has officially accepted bitcoin as legal tender,” the fake tweets reportedly said. “The government has officially bought 500 BTC” and would be “distributing them to all residents of the country.”

That scam tweet has since been deleted, and it also included a hyperlink.

Modi has more than 70 million followers on Twitter, more than any other world leader after Donald Trump’s Twitter account was suspended indefinitely following his role in the 6 January insurrection.

Before he was suspended, Trump had 88 million Twitter followers.

Twitter was informed as soon as the compromise of Modi’s personal Twitter account was noticed.

“The matter was escalated to Twitter and the account has been immediately secured,” the Indian PM’s office reportedly said in a tweet on Sunday.

“In the brief period that the account was compromised, any Tweet shared must be ignored,” officials were quoted as adding.

Second time

But this is not the first time that Modi has suffered a Twitter account compromise.

In September 2020 the verified account – @narendramodi_in – posted several tweets asking people to donate Bitcoin to another account.

“Yes this account is hacked by John Wick,” one tweet read in part, referencing the famous movie hitman character played by Keanu Reeves.

“I appeal to you all to donate generously to PM National Relief Fund for Covid-19, Now India begin with crypto currency,” another tweet read.

Twitter meanwhile  was of course famously hacked in July 2020, and the compromise of its internal systems resulted in the official Twitter accounts of 130 public figures and corporations including Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates, tweeting a bitcoin scam that offered to double people’s bitcoin payment.

Twitter subsequently confirmed that the hackers had targeted a small number of its staff through a phone “spear phishing” attack, in order to compromise Twitter admin systems.